Compurgator

Compurgator

In early legal practice, one of several character witnesses produced by someone accused of a crime or by a defendant in a civil suit to attest, in court, that he or she believed the defendant on his or her oath.

The process of compurgation, called Wager of Law in England, was a type of absolution from a criminal or civil charge that enabled the defendant to come forward and swear to his or her innocence or nonliability. Through compurgation, the person on trial was able to conclusively contradict the charges and reinforce his or her position through others who testified under oath that they believed the defendant's testimony.

The use of character witnesses in a lawsuit by a party is derived from the old practice of summoning compurgators to buttress one's case.

COMPURGATOR. Formerly, when a person was accused of a crime, or sued in a
civil action, he might purge himself upon oath of the accusation made
against him, whenever the proof was not the most clear and positive; and if
upon his oath he declared himself innocent, he was absolved.
2. This usage, so eminently calculated to encourage perjury by
impunity, was soon found to be dangerous to the public safety. To remove
this evil the laws were changed, by requiring that the oath should be
administered with the greatest solemnity; but the form was soon disregarded,
for the mind became. easily familiarized to those ceremonies which at first
imposed on the imagination, and those who cared not to violate the truth did
not hesitate to treat the form with contempt. In order to give a greater
weight to the oath of the accused, the law was again altered so as to
require that the accused should appear before the judge with a certain
number of his neighbors, relations or friends, who should swear that they
believed the accused had sworn truly. This new species of witnesses were
called compurgators.
3. The number of compurgators varied according to the nature of the
charge and other circumstances. Encyclopedie, h.t.. Vide Du Cange, Gloss.
voc. Juramentum; Spelman's Gloss. voc. Assarth; Merl. Rep. mot Conjurateurs.
4. By the English law, when a party was sued in debt or simple
contract, @detinue, and perhaps some other forms of action, the defendant
might wage his law, by producing eleven compurgators who would swear they
believed him on his oath, by which he discharged himself from the action in
certain cases. Vide 3 Bl. Com. 341-848; Barr. on the Stat. 344; 2 Inst. 25;
Terms de la Ley; Mansel on Demurrer, 130, 131 Wager of Law.

Similar to wager of law in the secular courts, canonical purgation required that the defamed party swear a formal oath that he was innocent of the imputed crime, and that he find a number of compurgators who supported his oath by swearing that they believed he had sworn truly.

He swears that he is not guilty of the crimes that his detractors accuse him of, and the goddess of love steps forward and assumes the role of his compurgator.

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